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Even as the Federal Reserve holds short-term interest rates near zero for the fourth year in a row, there are plenty of places to find decent income in the U.S. stock and bond markets. You just have to know where to look.

We found eight groups with average payouts ranging as high as 6% without the risk that often comes with reaching for yield. They include municipal bonds, with yields between 1% and 3%; utilities and real-estate investment trusts, at 4%; convertible securities, at 3%; high-dividend stocks, at 3% to 4%; master limited partnerships and junk bonds, at 6%, and preferred shares, at 5% to 6%. There are higher-yielding securities in all of these categories, including mortgage REITs and junk bonds that carry 10%-plus rates, but the rewards here may not be worth the risk.

What looks best for 2013? Given the risks in bonds at historically low-yield levels, it may be best to stick with blue-chip stocks, electric utilities, MLPs, and to a lesser extent, REITs.

In the bond market, junk still looks appealing, even as the average yield fell to 6% from about 20% at the start of 2009, when Barron's highlighted the market's appeal in a cover story. Junk may be the best house in a dangerous neighborhood.

Peter Hoey for Barron's

The tax legislation passed last week favors equity sources of income, which will be taxed at a top rate of 20%, plus a 3.8% Medicare surcharge. Most taxpayers, including couples earning less than $250,000, will still pay a top dividend rate of 15%. The top rate for ordinary income rises to 39.6% from 35% for couples earning more than $450,000. That rate also applies to interest income on taxable bonds, as well as distributions from master limited partnerships and REITs. It should be noted that investors can often defer taxes on MLP distributions.

It's hard to make a case for two of the lowest-yielding parts of the bond market -- Treasuries and mortgage securities -- because yields are in the 1% to 3% area, and both sectors could be hit hard if rates rise. Perhaps the best that can be said for Treasuries is that they're one of the few asset classes that are negatively correlated with stocks, meaning they tend to appreciate when stocks fall, and thus offer a hedge against a stock-market downdraft.

BlackRock favors dividend-paying stocks and junk bonds, while warning about the danger in Treasuries. "We believe dividend stocks look attractive," wrote BlackRock chief investment strategist Russ Koesterich last week. "With current payout ratios near historic lows and balance sheets quite strong, companies have ample ability to raise dividend payments to compensate investors for any changes in tax treatment." As for Treasuries, he wrote that interest-rate risk is high, as underscored last week when prices fell 4% as stocks rallied.

Here is an overview of the eight income sectors in order of their appeal.

High-Dividend Stocks

As more companies get serious about dividends, it's possible to put together an increasingly diversified portfolio of stocks yielding 3% to 4%. The obvious appeal of stocks versus bonds is that investors can benefit from rising dividends over time. Many big companies now have dividends that exceed their bond yields.

Utilities

Electric utilities were the only loser in 2012 among the major sectors of the S&P 500, with a 2.9% drop -- and a 1% return after dividends. This year could be better because utility dividends look appealing at 4%-plus in much of the industry.

Major utilities trade at an average of 14 times projected 2013 profits, compared with about 13 times for the faster-growing S&P 500. Yet utility earnings are relatively predictable, in the low- to mid-single digits each year.

MLPs

The group started the year strong, as the benchmark Alerian MLP index, which is heavy in energy pipelines, rose 4% over the first two sessions of 2013. More gains could follow after a tough 2012, when the AMZ fell 1% and returned 4.8%, including distributions. Reflecting strong historical returns in the sector, 2012 marked the only year in the past 13 in which MLPs trailed the S&P 500 in total return.

Credit Suisse analyst John Edwards has been bullish, pointing out that the yield on the AMZ index, now 6.5%, looks appealing relative to most other income securities. While weak prices for natural-gas liquids have hurt some MLPs, much of the sector that is involved in domestic energy transportation has experienced little or no impact. Growth in distributions industrywide is expected to average about 7% this year.

Junk Bonds

Wall Street generally expects subdued returns of about 7% this year after another strong year in 2012, when junk returned more than 15%. The challenge is that yields are low, at 6%, and prices are high, averaging about 105% of par value. This limits upside because most issues can be redeemed at par prior to maturity.

J. Matthew Philo, manager of the
Mainstay High-Yield Corporate
fund (MHYIX), generally is steering clear of lower-rated credits in favor of better situations. "This is a tale of two markets," he says. "The larger part of the market is very resilient with strong asset coverage and free cash flow."

Convertible Bonds

Convertibles are an overlooked asset class because of limited issuance of new bonds and complexity, including securities that automatically convert into equity. Less than $25 billion of converts have been issued in each of the past two years because most corporate treasurers can offer low-rate "straight" debt without giving investors an equity kicker.

"There are some good opportunities," says David King, manager of the
Columbia Convertible Securities
fund (PACIX). He's partial to a
Chesapeake Energy 5¾% convertible preferred
(CHKVZ), which recently traded at about $900, below its $1,000 face value, for a 6.4% current yield. The Chesapeake convert offers a lower-risk way to play a revival in natural-gas prices than the company's common shares. King also is partial to a 2⅞% convert from biotech company
Dendreon
(DNDN), recently trading below 75 cents on the dollar and a 13% yield to maturity in 2016. Dendreon developed a novel treatment for advanced prostate cancer that has had disappointing revenues. The company isn't far from cash-flow break-even and could be a takeover target.

REITs

After another strong year in which the sector returned 18%, investors may want to tread cautiously because REIT valuations aren't cheap in absolute terms or in relation to the S&P 500 index.

But REITs now trade for about 16 times 2013 funds from operations, a cash-flow measure favored by the industry. That compares with a multiple of 13 for the S&P 500. REITs look even more expensive at about 20 times adjusted funds from operations, a more conservative calculation of cash flow than FFO that subtracts certain recurring expenses like office-leasing costs.

REITs, now yielding an average of 3.6%, still look good relative to Treasuries. Industry fundamentals are favorable amid higher rents and limited new construction, while financing costs are low. "REITs are trading below private-market values, and they remain a haven for people concerned about inflation. Real estate is a hard asset," says Alex Goldfarb, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill.

Apartment REITs lagged behind the group last year, and Goldfarb is partial to
Post Properties
(PPS), which has a good position in the Sunbelt and low financial leverage. He also likes
Essex Property Trustess -0.2554511449685248%Essex Property Trust Inc.U.S.: NYSEUSD218.66
-0.56-0.2554511449685248%
/Date(1481300928755-0600)/
Volume (Delayed 15m)
:
30009
P/E Ratio
48.66518847006652Market Cap
14362636445.3333
Dividend Yield
2.9159832330964095% Rev. per Employee
710352More quote details and news »essinYour ValueYour ChangeShort position
(ESS), which has about half of its portfolio in Southern California, a region now reviving.

Municipal Bonds

With yields on top-grade munis similar to those on Treasuries, the relative appeal of the $3.7 trillion market is good, but absolute yield levels in the 1%-to-3% range aren't great with inflation running at about 2%.

Munis got a break when the congressional budget deal lifted top tax rates on the highest earners and thus heightened the appeal of tax-free income. To top it off, legislators chose not to tax the muni-bond interest of the highest earners, as some had feared.

That helped produce a rally on Wednesday, as long-term munis gained about 1% even as long-term Treasuries declined 1%. "While we are unlikely to see significant capital appreciation in municipal bonds, their after-tax yields are attractive, and munis remain a solid source of income," wrote BlackRock strategist Koesterich.

The idea of taxing muni-bond interest is dormant but not dead. If enacted, such a tax on munis likely would cut their demand, potentially lifting rates as much as half a percentage point and crunching long-term bonds. Many state and local governments face a large and festering pension problem. Given the risks, muni buyers might want to avoid long-term issues and stick with a fund like the
Vanguard Intermediate Term Tax-Exempt
fund (VWITX), which has low fees. Many investors favor individual bonds, but the downside is limited liquidity if holders ever need to sell.

Preferred Stock

With banks solidly profitable and the bond market strong, the preferred market has rallied sharply since the financial crisis, dropping yields on most bank issues to less than 6% from double-digit levels during 2009. Barron's has written favorably on preferred several times in the past four years.

The typical $25 retail preferred usually has a bad combination of a perpetual maturity and a five-year redemption feature at the issuer's option. "The risk-reward profile of these securities does not appear attractive; their upside is capped by the call option, but they could sell off significantly in a rising rate environment," wrote Barclays credit analyst Shobhit Gupta in a recent report.

Two exceptions are unusual preferreds from Wells Fargo and Bank of America that yield more than their regular issues and effectively aren't callable unless there is an enormous rise in common-stock prices. The Wells Fargo Series L has a 7.5% dividend rate and a price of $1,225, way above its face value of $1,000. It yields 6.09%, almost a full point above the bank's other preferreds. Bank of America's 7.25% Series L trades at $1,135 and yields 6.34%. Columbia's King notes that if the banks want to redeem them, they likely will have to pay investors a premium above the current price.